Page 193 of Kingdoms of Night

There werea lotmore.

They must have been hidden by the hill.

It didn’t surprise me that there were so many Infected here. They’d probably chased a few meals to this location, as it was an obvious departure point.

But only if there was a plane available—of which ours appeared to be the only one in working order—and a pilot who knew how to fly.

I’d been around enough cockpits to know the basics. However, there were limits to my knowledge. And those limits included flying that jet to its final destination.

The only reason I’d even been able to land the damn thing here was because the pilot had set up some sort of path right before he’d turned.

Then the jet had gone sideways because his hand had jerked the steering. Once I’d righted it, I’d been able to put us back on track.

So he’d obviously been planning to land early and leave the jet.

Honorable, I supposed.

But he shouldn’t have stepped onto the jet to begin with.

Fucking humans.

This was why I lacked sympathy for them—stupid decisions like not telling others about being bitten.

So many of them had this mentality of putting their own lives above everyone else’s, even at the risk of others.

There were many supernaturals who now felt similarly, as many of us had chosen to favor our own survival by blocking the humans out. With how fast the disease mutated, it was crucial to isolate it to those already impacted by it.

But those decisions came after realizing the mortals were damning themselves beyond recognition.

And after some of the wolf clans had realized they were susceptible to the virus.

Right, I thought, scanning the growing crowd again.This isn’t going to work.

I paused to reevaluate and noticed another potential weak link in the encircling group.

I started toward it, then stopped again as my nose picked up the strong scent of wrongness.

The fur along my spine danced in anticipation, my wolf ready to brawl.

I’d wanted to make this easy for Riley. But her safety and protection mattered more right now.

Which meant I was going to have to be a little less gentle than originally stated.

My wolf was fully on board.

I hoped Riley would be, too.

With a low warning growl, I took off back in the direction I’d originally indicated, and headed straight for the Infected.

Their excited screeches reminded me of nails on a chalkboard, drizzling ice through my veins.

I fucking hated that sound almost as much as their stench.

My wolf charged forward, ready for battle. But rather than slash at the Infected, I ran through them, knocking them down and creating a path for Riley to follow.

She did.

Or she tried to, anyway.

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